In decorating my home for fall, I didn’t have to look very far for materials. My yard is covered in fallen leaves, in every shape and color. I had already brought in some of the more beautiful leaves and put them in a vase on the counter, but I wanted to find a way to do something more with them. I decided to see if they would go through my sewing machine.
I used about a yard of green velvet ribbon and stitched up a very pretty and quite dramatic leaf bunting. To make the garland, I used the ribbon for the ends and sewed the leaves to themselves. It was very easy, once I figured out the trick: keep the presser foot UP. The feed dogs don’t like leaves, so just keep the presser foot up and manually feed the leaves under the needle.Related ProjectsHow-To: Make a Gumdrop GarlandHow-To: Make Garlands from Fall Flowers

Materials

Leaves
Sewing machine
Scissors
Ribbon
Thumbtacks

Directions

Step 1: Collect a large pile of leaves and remove their stems.Step 2: Start the garland with a length of ribbon and a single leaf. Set the sewing machine to the longest straight stitch. Place the ribbon and leaf under the needle, but don’t lower the presser foot. Sew the leaf to the ribbon.Step 3: Add another leaf, overlapping the first. Feed them under the needle by hand, gently pushing them through. Continue adding leaves, layering them however you like. I made sure to add them with the leaves pointing up and down and all around.Step 4: Use thumbtacks to hang the garland. Press the tack into the ribbon in a place where it is hidden by a leaf.

Very cute, but I’m confused by the instructions that say “but don’t lower the presser foot.” Usually if you don’t lower the presser foot, you end up with a rat’s nest of thread. Am I perhaps missing something here?

Osagegypsy

You could hand sew it. Or use sticky tape and then sew it by hand. I think the tracing paper might work too.

bstudio

Really lovely idea, I like it better than the look of a wreath. I have a very old machine that lets me disengage the feed dogs when the presser foot is down so I’ll give that a try.

bstudio

Really lovely idea, I like it better than the look of a wreath. I have a very old machine that lets me disengage the feed dogs when the presser foot is down so I’ll give that a try.

ammnidff

Tegucigalpa, Honduras (CNN) — U.S. Vice President Joe Biden vowed Tuesday to help Honduras as well as other Central American nations defeat drug traffickers and fight corruption.
But at a meeting with Central American presidents in Honduras, Biden stopped short of supporting a proposal that has gained growing attention in the region in current weeks: drug legalization.
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said final month that he supported measures to decriminalize drug production, trafficking and consumption. On Tuesday, Central American leaders announced plans to debate the concept at a meeting later this month.
Biden “said that he was in favor of an open and genuine debate concerning the decriminalization of drugs as long as the procedures and feasible results are analyzed,” according to a Honduran government statement distributed to reporters right after Tuesday’s meeting.
“Resources can’t be wasted if they are not going to achieve concrete outcomes,” the statement said, quoting Biden. “Resources must be focused on integrated, conclusive techniques and programs.” Following meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday, Biden stated there was no opportunity the Obama administration would change its policy opposing drug legalization, according to Mexico’s state-run Notimex news agency.
“In every nation that has experimented with all the legalization or decriminalization of drug consumption, the element of the population that consumes illegal substances grows,” he mentioned, based on Notimex.
In an interview with CNN en Espa?ol final month, Perez Molina defended his position.
“What I’ve carried out is place the subject back on the table. I believe it really is essential for us to have other alternatives and to talk about decriminalization. … We need to have to talk about decriminalization with the production, the transportation and, naturally, consumption,” he stated.
On Tuesday night, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo said Central American leaders meeting in Tegucigalpa “listened with attention and interest for the proposal in the president of Guatemala in regards to the search for option mechanisms for the fight against drug trafficking” and would debate the problem at a meeting in Guatemala on March 24.
Honduras can be a key drug trafficking corridor and has the world’s highest murder rate, with 82.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010, according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime.
Lobo as well as other Central American leaders have repeatedly argued that drug use inside the Usa fuels escalating violence throughout the region.
On Tuesday, Biden told reporters the United states “shared responsibility” but additionally noted that Central American nations ought to function to stop drug production.
He pledged that the United states would give economic assistance and instruction to Honduran law enforcement and judicial officials.
“One in the places in which we will hopefully be of aid is in vetting the police, the prosecutors and the judges,” Biden stated. “My experience has been: The folks with the nation have to be in a position to have confidence within the integrity of each and every of those institutions, if progress is going to be produced.”

jeerkwen

U.S. media reported that U.S. President Barack Obama next week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks to persuade Israel not to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months.
Obama is going to be held on the 5th meeting with the going to Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. By then, Obama will persuade Netanyahu to wait patiently the effect played by sanctions against Iran and aware of the threat of a military strike. The Washington Post quoted a government official mentioned, “We are trying to acquire Israel to attempt not to create the selection of a military strike” a situation of anonymity.
The report mentioned that Israeli leaders made ??it clear that to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability in much less time, however the U.S. is worried that Israel’s pre-emptive strike action would trigger a regional war inside the Middle East. Israel had decided to attack on Iran will not be issued a warning signal towards the Usa, the U.S. government can deny conscious of developments in advance, however it also limits the United states to protect its military installations within the Middle East’s potential.Based on an opinion poll carried out in January by the U.S. media, most Americans think that financial sanctions and diplomatic way much better than military action against Iran. Therefore, the United states and Israel for the differences in how to take care of the Iranian nuclear issue has elevated. Israel believes Iran is developing nuclear weapons and military strikes against the window getting closed although the U.S. is no indication that Iran is determined to producenuclear weapons, and the serious consequences of military operations, like Iran’s retaliation against the United states, the scenario inside the Middle East instability along with the influence in the international economy .